1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording apparatus and, more particularly, to an information recording apparatus to which a plurality of recording media having different recording forms can be attached and which is arranged to record image information on such recording media.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic still camera which is one example of an information recording apparatus will be referred to hereinafter for the purpose of illustration.
An apparatus which is arranged to record a still image and a sound on a magnetic disk which serves as a recording medium has heretofore been commercially available as a conventional type of electronic still camera. In addition, an electronic still camera has already been proposed which employs as a recording medium a memory card having a solid-state memory device such as a DRAM, an SRAM or an EEPROM.
However, the recording capacity of such a memory card is limited because of a limited degree of integration of a memory device or limits of the number of memory elements which can be incorporated into a single memory card. In addition, since the memory card is more expensive than other recording media at present, it is economically difficult to utilize the memory card as a large-capacity recording medium.
If a large-capacity magnetic recording medium such as a hard disk unit is used in place of the memory card, it is possible to achieve large-capacity recording comparatively inexpensively.
However, if the hard disk unit is used as a recording medium for the electronic still camera, large-capacity recording can be inexpensively achieved, but a number of problems will be encountered, for example, a limited recording speed, susceptibility to vibration or shock, susceptibility to environmental conditions such as temperature (particularly, a freezing temperature), and a large power consumption.
If the memory card is used as a recording medium for the electronic still camera, there will be various advantages such as an increased recording speed, insusceptibility to vibration or shock, insusceptibility to environmental conditions such as temperature, and a small power consumption. In contrast, a number of disadvantages will be encountered, for example, expensiveness and unsuitability for large-capacity recording. Particularly if a sound as well as an image is recorded, the maximum number of photographed images recordable in the memory card is limited to a further extent since the memory card can only record a limited number of photographed images even if only images are recorded.